How to Accept Music Demos as a Label: A&R Playbook

TL;DR: To accept music demos as a label, publish one submission link with a short demo policy, log every demo in a shared queue with an owner and a status, review in set listening sessions, and confirm every submission and decision to the artist. Email can work at low volume. A portal pays off once several A&Rs share the queue.

1. Decide what you're open to
2. Publish one link
3. Ask for the minimum
4. Log every demo the same way
5. Review and assign as a team
6. Close the loop with artists

Opening for demos looks like a one-line decision: add a link, post that you're open, let artists send music. The decision that shapes your week is what happens to every demo after it lands, and who on your team does something with it.

This playbook is for A&Rs and label managers at independent electronic and dance labels with more than one person listening. If you're an artist looking for where to send a track, start with the labels directory.

1. Decide what you're open to

"We accept demos" is not guidance. It leaves genre, project stage, format and "are you even signing right now" unanswered, so you get everything, and most of it doesn't fit.

Start with a short statement of fit. Name the styles you want, as narrowly as you honestly can: "melodic techno and progressive house" tells an artist more than "electronic". Say whether you only want unreleased music, whether remixes and bootlegs are welcome, and whether you're after singles or EPs. If you aren't signing for the next few months, say that too, and show it on the page while intake is paused. A closed notice beats a form that keeps collecting demos nobody will hear until spring.

Being specific shrinks the pile on purpose: the right artists get a reason to send, and everyone else a reason to skip you.

2. Publish one submission link

Pick one destination and use the same link everywhere: website, bios, email autoresponder, DM replies and any "we're open" post. Artists shouldn't have to guess which channel you watch, and you shouldn't have to merge three queues later.

Artists will still DM and email you directly. That's fine, as long as the demo ends up in the same queue. A quick reply with the link ("thanks, please send it through here so the whole team can hear it") moves it over.

Dedicated email, form or portal?

A demos address is the fastest to set up and the hardest to share. A form with a spreadsheet gives you structure for free, with status and replies kept elsewhere. A portal has the queue and artist updates built in, at the cost of one more tool. The comparison below goes through each.

3. Write a short demo policy: what to ask for

Ask only for what makes a first listen possible:

• Artist name
• Contact email
• Track link
• Genre
• One line about the artist
• Whether the track is released or unreleased

Ask for private streaming links instead of attachments, and remind artists to check that the link plays for someone who isn't logged in. Private links nobody else can open cause a lot of back and forth.

Then say what happens next: we confirm your submission, we review on our own schedule, and we tell you when there's a decision. Don't put a turnaround time on the page unless your team can keep it every week.

Copy-paste demo policy

Adapt this to your label:

• We're looking for melodic techno and progressive house. Unreleased originals only, no bootlegs.
• Send up to 3 tracks as private streaming links. No attachments.
• Check that your links play for someone who isn't logged in.
• Include your artist name, a contact email and one line about you.
• You'll get a confirmation when your demo arrives. We listen in batches and we'll tell you when there's a decision.
• We can't give personal feedback on every demo.
• When we're not taking demos, this page will say so.

For the long version, see our demo submission guidelines.

4. Log every demo the same way

Give every demo the same fields: artist, track link, genre, source, date received, status, owner, and internal notes the artist never sees. Then anyone can pick up any demo without asking around.

Keep the status list short and tie each status to a real handoff. New, Listening, Shortlist, then Passed or In talks covers most labels, and each one tells someone what to do next: New needs a first listen, Shortlist needs a full listen from whoever signs, Passed needs a reply. With more than a handful of statuses, people stop updating them and the queue starts lying to you.

The usual failure is losing the shared picture of the queue: one person listened, another meant to follow up, and nobody knows where things stand without asking in a group chat. What you want is a shared surface, not a shared memory.

5. Review demos and assign them across your A&R team

Set listening sessions

Demos heard between other jobs get half a listen. Fixed sessions work better, twice a week for example, with the queue open and nothing else going on. Do a quick triage pass to decide whether a track fits the label at all, then a full listen for the shortlist on decent speakers. Batching also makes the queue predictable, so nobody has to chase a demo that arrived on Monday.

Assigning demos

Give every demo exactly one owner. Split by genre if your A&Rs have clear lanes, by sub-label if you run several imprints, or on a rotation if everyone hears everything. The owner moves the demo to a decision. Anyone else can listen and leave a note, but the decision has a name on it. Without one, a promising demo sits in Shortlist for weeks while everyone assumes someone else is following up.

Make decisions explicit

Every demo should leave the queue with an outcome and one line on why. "Passed: good production, too commercial for us" takes ten seconds to write, and it pays off when the same artist sends something new in six months or a teammate takes over a sub-label.

The workflow should make the next action obvious and leave the taste with the people listening. More on that split in A&R submission management.

6. Reply to artists and keep them updated

Confirm every submission automatically. Silence is what causes most "did you get my demo?" emails.

Personal feedback for every artist isn't realistic for a small team. A clear decision is enough. Two short examples to rewrite in your own voice:

Thanks for sending this. We listened a few times and it's not one for us right now, mostly because it sits closer to peak-time techno than what we release. Feel free to send new music in the future.

Thanks for the demo. We really like it, especially the second track. Could you send a few more unreleased tracks, and let us know if you're talking to other labels about these?

Between submission and decision, a page the artist can check on their own means fewer follow-up emails for your team. We explain why in our post on the artist demo status page.

Email vs form vs portal: which should your label use?

"Isn't moving off email extra work?"

At the start, yes. Someone has to set up the portal, change the link in your bios and autoresponder, tell the team where demos live now, and redirect the artists who keep emailing out of habit. Expect a few weeks where some demos still arrive the old way, and plan for that.

What moves is smaller than it sounds. You keep email for every personal conversation: introductions, follow-ups with artists you like, deal talk. Only intake and status move. Artists send their demo through one link, and the confirmation and decision messages go out without anyone writing them.

The simplest way to switch:

1. Set up the portal with your demo policy and the fields from section 3.
2. Put the link in your bios, on your website and in your demos@ autoresponder.
3. Answer DMs and stray emails with the link for a few weeks.
4. Clear the old inbox once, then stop treating it as a queue.

If one person handles a few demos a week, email is fine and you don't need to switch. It starts costing more than it saves once a second person listens, or once "did we answer this one?" is hard to answer. More detail in Calmo vs email for demo submissions and our post on alternatives to email for demo submissions.

Where Calmo fits

Calmo is a demo submission portal for record labels: a branded page with your logo, colors and copy, which shows your closed message when you turn submissions off. Artists submit a demo link allowed by the label for free, without a Calmo account. Every demo lands in one dashboard with its status next to the music, where your team can listen, leave notes and assign it to a teammate. Artists get an automatic confirmation with a link to a status page, and a decision email when you approve or decline. Every plan includes unlimited team members.

Before you announce you're open

Run the journey yourself before you post anything. Open the link as an artist: can you tell whether you're a fit, and submit in a couple of minutes? Then open the queue as a teammate would tomorrow morning: can you see what needs a listen, who owns it and what needs an answer, without asking anyone?

If yes, you're ready to open. Everything else can change once you see what actually shows up.

FAQ

How do record labels accept demos?

Most independent labels accept demos through one stated channel, usually a submission form, a portal or a dedicated email address, with rules on genre and on sending streaming links instead of files. Major labels mostly don't accept unsolicited demos. Warner Music Group's FAQ, for example, says its labels only take demos recommended by an industry professional.

Should a label accept demos by email?

Email works when one person listens and volume is low. Once several people review demos, a shared inbox loses track of who owns each demo, what its status is and whether the artist got a reply. A form or portal keeps one queue with owners and statuses, while email stays the place for personal conversations with artists.

What should a demo submission include?

Ask for the minimum needed for a first listen: artist name, contact email, a private streaming link, genre, one line about the artist, and whether the track is released or unreleased. Anything more can wait until you're interested. Ask artists to check that the link plays for someone who isn't logged in to their account.

How long should a label take to reply to a demo?

Promise only what you can keep. Confirm receipt straight away, ideally automatically. If you state a review window on your demo page, stick to it every week. If you can't commit to one, say that you review in batches and that you'll tell the artist when there's a decision, then make sure every demo gets one.

How do you split demo review across an A&R team?

Give each demo one owner, and split ownership by genre, by sub-label or on a rotation. Hold set listening sessions, with a quick triage pass and a full listen for the shortlist. The owner moves each demo to a decision and logs one line on why, so anyone can pick it up later.

Do artists have to pay to submit a demo?

No. On a label's own form or portal, submitting should be free, and a label shouldn't charge for it. Warner Music Group's FAQ says its employees may not ask for a fee in exchange for submitting a demo, and warns artists about scammers who do. On Calmo, artists submit for free and the label pays for the plan.

Start taking demos in one place

Want one link, one queue and automatic artist updates? Launch a branded demo portal free. Pro and Label come with a 14-day trial. See plans.